Easily the worst album I have experienced this year.

It is with very little surprise I find myself writing this review in the form which is to come. Admittedly Boys Like Girls debut self-titled was something of a guilty pleasure of mine... for the first half anyway. Boys like Girls sophomore attempt, however, is an album so bad that it is hard to envision how such an abortion of a musical tirade can have possibly been conceived, let alone exposed to the unwitting public. I shall make very clear, Love Drunk is far worse than I could ever have expected; which is quite a feat considering how low my expectations were going into my first listen.

If Fall Out Boy are the much adored love child of the pop-punk and emo genres, then Boys like girls are now the semi-retarded cousin that they try to avoid mentioning in polite conversation. While their debut offered glimpses of a potentially palatable band with a simple catchy pop-rock formula - despite the lyrics being almost certainly aimed at thirteen year old simpletons - the vocals were, often-times, impressive and displayed a genuine degree of talent from singer Martin Johnson. Instrumentally as well, there was at least some indication that the band were capable of playing their instruments competently and creating some catchy tracks. It was for these reasons that, against my better judgement, I stood by Boys Like Girls as a band that I actually kind of liked (but by no means enough to actually tell my friends I did).

It is with regret, but no real surprise, that I find myself wondering why I even bothered wasting 45 minutes of my life listening to Love Drunk. Not content to be merely a band that people might actually like, they have taken every element of maturity and brutally butchered it with every studio enhancement tool known to man. From the very first track, the inescapable use of heavy auto-tune, the dull instrumentation and, quite frankly, shameful lyrics show that Boys Like Girls are truly out to capture the hearts of every teenage girl that happens upon their most unfortunate musical creations.

The album truly begins as it means to go on as every track seems to trudge its way through every pop-rock trick we've come to expect from disposable, cash-in, bands. The lyrics are truly high-school poetry at its finest (worst?) the vocals are tweaked beyond recognition and musically the band sound frankly bored - or, at least, the instrumentation is stunningly boring.

The listener is also treated to a duet with teenage heart-throb Taylor Swift. While this is perhaps the most pop cash-in moment of the album, it is also perhaps the most enjoyable. It is interesting to note that a song which does not feature the rest of the band and does, vocally, rely solely on Johnson's apparent auto-tune fetish alone, is also the least offensive moment on the whole album... it's actually rather good, but, shhh, don't tell anyone.

And this perhaps the true story of this album, at moments it has the potential to be listenable, but the eager hands of the producer erase any sense of authenticity in the music and turn it into a stunning display of well polished mediocrity.

For all Fall Out Boy's popularity nowadays, they still had to do their time in trenches before breaking into the mainstream. Boys Like Girls have made their attentions to skip that troublesome meddling in the trenches clear in this album, but shiny smooth production doesn't make up for an inability to write interesting songs. While I still believe that Johnson has some vocal talent hiding under all the studio polish, I do not expect to hear from this band in 5 years time.